From: Rob Hunter <rob.hunter@...>
Date: 2007-07-11T12:59:37+09:00
Subject: Creating a language -- HTML + a few special tags

Hi all,

I'm looking to implement a "plug-in" language which is essentially just
HTML plus a few custom tags that I want to support.  For example, some
source code in this language might look like

<ul>
  <li><FOO>something</FOO></li>
  <li><BAR>something else</BAR></li>
</ul>

where FOO and BAR are special tags that have some meaning that I define.
Say, for this example, that FOO strongs text inside a <p> tag, and BAR
emphasizes text inside a blink tag.  So the "compiled down" source would
look like

<ul>
  <li><p><strong>something</strong></p></li>
  <li><blink><em>something else</em></blink></li>
</ul>

Is there some open-source software that already does something like
this?  Absent that, it seems like the best way is to just read in the
HTML with something like XmlSimple, write a simple interpreter to grovel
over the expression, evaluating the custom tags as they come up, and the
spitting out the resulting HTML.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

--rob

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.